There has been one design for all nets for hundreds of years. Thats not saying that it is the exact same material, because it is far from the same. The design however has never wavered and the truly fascinating thing is neither has its effectiveness! The exact net that I have been studying is shown in the picture to the left. That is the Willow Root Fish Net that I discovered in the Alaska Museum. Its design is simple to explain as well as to understand. At the top of the net there is a long line that is strung with pieces of wood that are used as flotation for the net while it is in the water. Below that is the all important net which is how the fish are actually caught. It is made up of Willow Roots which are tightly woven together in diamond shapes which make it very easy to catch the salmon. At the bottom of the net is what holds the whole net down is a line much like the top of the net but at the bottom it is strung along with animal bones, specifically Caribou bones which helped weigh down the net and keep the bottom if is submerged. All of these aspects of the net work together inline to catch as much wild Alaska salmon as possible!
Thursday, November 5, 2009
THE net of ALL nets
There has been one design for all nets for hundreds of years. Thats not saying that it is the exact same material, because it is far from the same. The design however has never wavered and the truly fascinating thing is neither has its effectiveness! The exact net that I have been studying is shown in the picture to the left. That is the Willow Root Fish Net that I discovered in the Alaska Museum. Its design is simple to explain as well as to understand. At the top of the net there is a long line that is strung with pieces of wood that are used as flotation for the net while it is in the water. Below that is the all important net which is how the fish are actually caught. It is made up of Willow Roots which are tightly woven together in diamond shapes which make it very easy to catch the salmon. At the bottom of the net is what holds the whole net down is a line much like the top of the net but at the bottom it is strung along with animal bones, specifically Caribou bones which helped weigh down the net and keep the bottom if is submerged. All of these aspects of the net work together inline to catch as much wild Alaska salmon as possible!
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
The intro.. To the net
So as I get into my blog for the next month i'm first going to give you a run down on what it all is going to be about. For my Intro to College Writing class as well as my Contemporary Native Life class we were assigned to pick an object from the Alaska Museum to write on and study throughout the semester. The object that I selected was the Willow Root Fish Net. I selected the object because it has some significant personal importance to me. My family commercial fishes every single summer in the waters of Bristol Bay. So it was a no brainer for me to select this object because it has so much personal importance to me. But as I began to dig deeper and deeper into the object I uncovered so much more that I ever imagined could be with just a simple fish net. As this month gets going follow along with my blog to discover the abundance of historical and cultural significance the Willow Root Fish net withholds!
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